1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a composition to suppress cellular fibrousing, particularly to a composition adapted to suppress cellular fibrousing and containing an extract from loquat seeds.
2. Prior Art
It has been revealed recently that fibrousing is deeply involved in the cells of various organs such as liver, lungs, kidneys, etc., and general cells of the skin with respect to the development of intractable diseases of those organs such as chronic hepatitis, hepatic cirrhosis, interstitial pneumonitis, glomerulosclerosis, and hidebound disease. Cellular fibrousing refers to an increase in a fibrous component at a local site within the tissue of an organ, and the condition in which fibrousing is confined not to the local site but spreads widely in the organ is called fibrosis. It has been revealed that fibrousing by hepatocytes as a result of chronic hepatitis may often lead to the development of hepatic cirrhosis and hepatic cancer. Thus, it has been regarded important to find how to suppress the fibrousing of hepatocytes, thereby preventing the development of hepatic cirrhosis and hepatic cancer. To achieve this, studies have been made to screen medicines possibly effective for suppressing the fibrousing of hepatocytes, and to investigate their effects and action mechanisms.
However, although some candidate suppressants have been found, the mechanism by which they suppress cellular fibrousing is not yet fully clarified. Therefore, if it were possible to elucidate the mechanism responsible for their suppression effects against fibrousing, and to reproduce the mechanism by some means, the knowledge would be immensely valuable in the treatment of various intractable diseases involved in fibrousing.
In view of this, the present invention aims at providing a composition useful for suppressing cellular fibrousing.
And now, loquat is widely cultivated in Japan as a fruit tree. Its fruits are used as food, and its leaves are used as a loquat leaf medicine for curing skin diseases, and as an anti-inflammatory and pain-killer. However, its seeds are simply discarded as waste and have never been used for any useful purpose.
The present inventors studied extracts from seeds of various plants. They particularly studied the suppression effect of the extracts from loquat seeds on cellular fibrousing, and succeeded in finding the composition of this invention.
The composition of the present invention is characterized by containing an extract from loquat seeds.
The extract is obtained from the loquat seeds by pulverizing loquat seeds, immersing the pulverized material in at least one solvent selected from the group consisting of ethanol, methanol, water and hexane, and separating the supernatant.
The method for preparing a loquat seed extract according to this invention comprises the steps of pulverizing loquat seeds, immersing the grain in a solvent, and separating the supernatant.
The method for preparing a loquat seed extract in this invention, at least one selected from the group comprising ethanol, methanol, water and hexane is used as a solvent.